There is life and a career after journalism: Panelists share 9 takeaways
The six panelists who led the SFJ “Life After Journalism” webinar are, clockwise from top left: Hsiao-Ching Chou, Ben Riggs, Susanna Ray, Margaret Myers, Gina Cole, Allison Linn
A few years back, author and veteran journalism scholar Roy Peter Clark wrote a powerful Poynter essay with the headline “There’s no such thing as a former journalist.”
“The migration of good journalists into other fields expands interest in the well-being of important institutions,” Clark wrote. “I know many of these ‘former journalists,’ and they have not left their skills and values behind. They use them every day for the public good.”
During a virtual Society for Features Journalism panel discussion on March 26, six experienced journalists who pivoted in their careers validated the arguments Clark made in his essay. Panelists from Microsoft, Zillow, Salesforce, Kettering Health and Long Dash candidly described their transitions from traditional newsrooms to journalism-adjacent career fields, as well as their ongoing efforts to tell true and compelling stories geared toward different audiences.
SFJ organized the “Life After Journalism” panel discussion in response to mass layoffs and deep uncertainty in the journalism industry — with a keen awareness that many of our members recently lost their jobs. The nearly 100 people who attended received both practical guidance and emotional support from panelists and participants. To encourage honest conversation and sharing, the event was not recorded.
Here are some general takeaways and tips that emerged for out-of-work and/or severely burned-out journalists:
You are, and always will be, a storyteller. Large corporations, small businesses and institutions like universities, hospitals and charities need help telling their stories. Journalists are uniquely positioned to be able to help all sorts of organizations do just that. Doing this does not require being a specialist in a field. It requires curiosity, intuitiveness and solid reporting skills.
Remember your superpowers. Transferable journalism skills include: a quick, bright mind; lightning speed; excellent listening abilities; beautiful writing; strong editing (both big-picture editing and copy editing); effective jargon translation; the ability to synthesize information that is dense and complex; empathy for different stakeholders; and an innate understanding of what working journalists need. Sure, there may be other people out there with more experience in the field you’re exploring — but most mere mortals don’t know how to do what you do.
Always be nice to your journalism co-workers. If/when they move on to new and different kinds of jobs, they might pounce on the opportunity to work with you again.
Reflect on your network in fresh ways. Whom did you love-love-love working with in newsroom settings? Remember people like that who have moved on to new career fields and reach out to them. Coffee dates might sound old-fashioned, but set them up anyway. They’re effective.
Position yourself as a problem solver. When applying for new jobs, resist the temptation to stress past positions or past responsibilities that might not mean all that much to people in non-journalism fields. Instead, adopt a forward-looking attitude and describe the magnitude of what you will bring to a new team or scenario. (For inspiration, see the second tip up above!)
Use AI to your advantage. Whether we like it or not, we are living in an AI world. Does that mean journalists and other public writers can and will inevitably be replaced? Not at all. But working journalists and storytellers of all stripes need to know AI tools and understand how to use them to work more productively and efficiently — so, rather than avoiding AI altogether, learn as much as you can about it.
Keep expanding your skill sets in other ways. Are you primarily a writer or an editor? Then put some energy into beefing up your photography, video and audio/podcast skills. Find short courses to take and sign up for them.
Pack your patience for the next leg of your journey. The story review processes at non-news organizations can be labyrinthine. Take lots of deep breaths and learn to relinquish a sense of close control over your stories. At the same time, reflect on the positive sides of the review process, which can include increased accuracy, clarity and peace of mind for the writer after so much exhaustive editing.
Protect your health. Sadly, far too many journalists work themselves into extremely unhealthy places. Realize that other avenues of employment may offer more work-life and work-family balance. That said, remain alert for red flags wherever you roam because plenty of unhealthy work cultures exist out there. Be honest with yourself about how your job is affecting your health, and take decisive action to improve the situation if necessary.
Huge thanks to our panelists for taking time out of their busy schedules to help their colleagues with such kindness and thoughtfulness. Here are bios for the folks who spoke on the panel:
ABOUT OUR PANELISTS
Hsiao-Ching Chou leads editorial for Salesforce's Product UX team. She supports content strategy and marketing, and edits the blogs related to UX design that publish on The 360, Salesforce's corporate blog. In her other life, she's the author of three Chinese cookbooks and remains active in the food community. Previously, she worked as a food writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Denver Post.
Gina Cole is a corporate communications manager for Zillow Group, focusing on media relations, crisis comms, business strategy and thought leadership. Before making the jump to PR, Gina was an editor at The Seattle Times, at various points managing morning news, COVID coverage and the digital audience team.
Allison Linn is a communications director at Microsoft, responsible for overseeing journalism-style storytelling about AI, innovation and our global customers and partners, among other things. Previously, she spent more than 15 years as a journalist for the Wall Street Journal Europe, the Associated Press and the NBC News family (Today, CNBC, msnbc.com and NBCNews.com).
Margaret Myers is a Director on the editorial team at Long Dash, a creative and strategy firm that was developed at The Atlantic. Over the last eight years, Marge has advised Fortune 500 corporations, nonprofit newsrooms, and social media giants like X and Discord on how to create enduring engagement through storytelling and audience cultivation. She began her career as an editor in Guatemala City and Mexico City, and after that ran the features department at the Amarillo Globe-News, was an editor at espn.com, and led the PBS NewsHour’s online team.
Ben Riggs is a writer, editor, and writing coach with a compulsion for true storytelling. A graduate of Ohio State University, he's been working with words for nearly two decades, and has writing and editing certificates from the Poynter Institute and Standard Health. He lives in Dayton, Ohio, with his wife, Emily, their black lab (Lewie)—and they're expecting their first child, a girl, in late May.
Susanna Ray reported from multiple continents over two decades for top-tier global news organizations including Bloomberg, Dow Jones and the Associated Press. She never planned to leave journalism but took a break for health reasons and ended up being recruited by the Microsoft Stories team eight years ago in a surprisingly enjoyable twist to her career.
Laura T. Coffey is president of the Society for Features Journalism and a longtime editor and feature writer. She’s also the author of the bestselling nonfiction book “My Old Dog: Rescued Pets with Remarkable Second Acts.” Connect with Laura here.